Collaborative Art With BETTY FRANKS KRAUSE

Finished Project

Hi again friends!

Here's yet another of my collaborative art projects, this time with the talented Betty Franks Krause.  Betty is fairly new to mixed media art but she has taken it by storm.  She has a wonderful style and color sense and our work is very complementary, I think.  

In the next photo you'll see the 8 X 10 wrapped canvas that Betty sent to me to work on.  Here's what it looked like when it arrived.

I was very happy to see a purple and pink theme to start with!  Also, Betty had used some tissue or other lightweight paper in her work which gave the surface great texture to start with.  The scan actually doesn't do justice to how good this piece looked to start.

First, I decided to deepen the colors by adding some more purple acrylic paint, dabbed on the sides and front with a sea sponge.  I wanted a rich purple color.  I also added some neon pink acrylic randomly around the canvas, along with some light pink, which I streaked on by coating the edge of an old credit card in paint and dragging it haphazardly across the canvas.

Next, I used some heart-shaped acrylic stamps (each about 2" across) and stamped a bunch of them on some scrap tissue paper.  When the ink had dried, I took some liquid watercolors in magenta, orange and yellow and loosely painted the tissue paper.  When the paint was dry, I cut out the hearts and using gel medium, glued them randomly around the canvas.  This is a favourite technique of mine because the tissue paper just melts into the background leaving only the image as another layer to the art.

Next, I outlined the hearts with a black grease pencil and smudged them for a grungy look.

The next step was to choose a central image for the piece.  I had recently made the collage figure you see below.  She was made from a couple of different pieces.  Her head, hat and collar are one piece (recycled from an old catalog) and her body is a separate collage element.  I loved that she carries a paint palette in her hands.  How appropriate for this project!  I mounted the image on hot pink paper and cut her out with a skinny border so that she'd have a bit of an outline and stand out against the canvas.  Then I glued her to the canvas with gel medium.

In the bottom left you'll see where I stamped the word "Illusion" onto a scrap of tissue paper and then adhered it to the canvas.

Now, I felt I was getting close to being done.  I love to use dangly hearts and stars in a lot of my work lately and felt that this would be a good idea for a way to finish off this piece.  So I drew a few small hearts on either side of the central image and painted them with a lovely sapphire blue color (Silks acrylics).  You can't really tell from the photos, but it is a bold shimmery jewel tone.  This photo only shows one coat of the Silks, but I ultimately did two coats to get opaque coverage.  Fabulous!!

And lastly, I added some salvaged sparkly doodads for the hearts to hang from.  They are a shiny metallic blue.  A coat or two of sealant and I called this piece done!  Here are some close-up shots of each quadrant of the piece.

I hope you enjoyed seeing this project.  Betty, thank you SO much for sending me such a great piece to work on.  I love how it turned out!

Collaborative Art With Belinda Dworak - Part 2

Last week I shared with you a piece that my art friend Belinda Dworak started and that I finished.  This week we'll do the reverse.

I started this piece a very long time ago.  The substrate was a piece of scrap matboard about 8X10.  I did some different mixed media techniques on it in paint and spray inks, along with some collaged elements in the background (vintage text and scraps of paper).  Then, I covered it with some sheer ribbon that was about four inches wide and which had a beautiful metallic swirl pattern on it.  I used Mod Podge to adhere the ribbon to the substrate and then painted some glitter glue over the surface for a bit more sparkle.

The angel is an ornament I made from a recycled Christmas card.  If you check my blog posts from the end of 2013 (around December 27 or so), you'll see I posted a tutorial on how to make these ornaments.  It's hard to see in the photo, but it is 3D and the arms are folded a bit forward.  Her head is made from a flattened bottle cap, stamped face image and a circle of resin.  Ribbon and sparkly embellishments finish off the angel and she was glued to the substate with white glue.  And then this piece sat for many months until I finally exchanged it with Belinda.

Here are Belinda's notes and photos about what she did with this piece when she got it:

Belinda:  I first attached Joanna's art work to a canvas board using Golden Heavy Gel Matte Medium to help keep her piece from curling.  I use a lot of liquid paint and water when I work on my own art and it can cause the edges to roll or curl.  By attaching her piece to a canvas board, it stabilizes the piece.

Belinda:  Next I added some Golden Matte Medium.  I then started adding a tree using Liquitex brown for the trunk and a mix of greens and off-white for the tree top.

Belinda:  I then added more outline around the tree trunk and more greens to the top of the tree.  I wanted to make the angel's wings pop, so I mixed together some neon greens with white acrylic and some paint that has a bit of shine to it.  I really liked the color once I applied it around the wings.  I then mixed some golden yellows and white to paint around the bottom of the angel and canvas.

Belinda:  At this point in my process I am continuing to fill in and paint the elements I have already created.

Belinda:  I stopped at this point and left the painting sit overnight to dry and to think about what I was going to do next.

Belinda:  I decided to put an inspirational balloon of sorts above the angel.  I used my own art sheets to tear strips from and then proceeded to stamp words on each strip.  I layered the strips above the angel's head with Golden Matte Medium.  Not knowing if this was going to work, I just continued on.  Once all the word strips were down, I filled in the balloon with tiny plain strips from the same art sheet.  I then went back and painted where there were no strips to form my balloon.  I used a white signo pen to go around the strips to shape my balloon.

Belinda:  You will see in the finished painting that I used some vintage linen thread to attach to the bottom of the balloon and wrap around the angel's hand.  I also added some blue at the top to create a little sky effect and reshape the tree top.  The tree trunk or base was a little too dark for me.  I added some stamped words with white ink to lighten it up.  I carried the stamping to some other parts of the canvas too.  This is the final finished canvas.

I think Belinda did a tremendous job finishing off this piece of art, don't you?  It has been so much fun to work with her on these projects and finally see some half-finished works complete.  Stay tuned for the coming weeks as we each have one more piece of the other's art to finish off and I'll be posting about both of them soon.

Have a great week, my friends!

Cheers!
Joanna

COLLABORATIVE ART WITH BELINDA DWORAK - Part 1

Hi everyone;

Here's another fun collaborative project I was involved in, this time with the lovely Belinda Dworak.

Belinda sent me a small piece she had started on canvasboard.  It's 6" X 8."  Here's what it looked like when it arrived.  She'd used some beautiful butterfly images on sheet music to start the piece.

My first step was to take some pink acrylic paint and do some mark making on the piece, using the edge of an old credit card.  I love this effect!

Next, I added some neon yellow acrylic paint with a sea sponge, some neon green paint using a rubber stamp sheet (crackle pattern), followed by some neon pink with the sea sponge again.

After that, I used some cheap, Dollar Store number stamps with purple acrylic paint and a bit of doodling around each number.  On the right lower side of the piece, I collaged a bit of a border (Teesha Moore image), along with one of my gelli print images (the flower face) in the upper right.

Next, I added another of Teesha's collage elements (pink flower in lower right) and did some doodling around my gelli flower face.  I made the central image from assorted bits and pieces (gelli print scraps, recycled office supplies and some collage elements I had scanned from previous art I had made).  Then more doodly outlining.

My next step was to collage on to the piece the upside down number border at the top of the piece.  I also added the joker image (a scan from a playing card that I aged with a bit of walnut ink) and the alphabet text in the lower right.

I added another of my gelli print flower faces to the left side of the piece, over another collage element courtesy of Teesha Moore and more of my gelli scraps.  More doodling followed.  The pink flower in the lower right got a visitor about then too.

Next, the joker got some color added (Pitt Pen brush markers) and I did some doodling in the background of the lower left with gel pens.  I created some 3D flowers in the lower left using handmade polymer clay beads for the flowers and miniature checkerboard paper for the stems.  Our central image got a crown.  Red stamp ink around the edges of the piece give it a finished look and I called it done at this point, feeling that it had become busy enough.

I really had so much fun with this piece.  It took me a while to get going on it but once I was on a roll, it came together quite quickly.

Join me again next week when I will feature one of the pieces that Belinda transformed into something very special.

Have a great week, one and all!

Hugs!
Joanna

COLLABORATIVE ART WITH GINNY MARKLEY

Hi All;

A few months ago I posted about how my dear art pal, Ginny Markley, took a half-finished piece of my art and made a stunning finished masterpiece with it.  We had traded each other a partially done piece of art for the other to finish and return.  Here's the link to that post:

Ginny Markley & Joanna Grant Collaborative Art - Part I

Anyway, it's taken me this long to get time to do a blog post on Ginny's piece she sent for me to work on.

Here is what it looked like when I got it.  It's about 8" X 10".  Ginny used gelli prints and assorted collage elements to get the piece to this point.

I sat for quite a while trying to figure out what to do with this piece.  There's more pressure on you than you'd think when it's somebody else's work and you don't want to mess it up with a wrong step.  I finally just decided to dive in and not worry about that. 

I started with a bit of doodling and then used a scrap of corrugated cardboard and white acrylic paint to  make the marks you see on the left side of the piece.

Next, I added some of my gelli print flower cutouts to her dress to jazz it up a bit and legs to the little character on the right.

Then, I continued to work on the little character on the right, building up its outfit.  I also added some black outlining to her dress to make it stand out a bit more and some highlighting of the gelli print flowers.

After that, I added some doodling and a funky little collage element for her hair.  Some gold metallic acrylic paint went into the background near her right hand.  Her bracelet got a facelift too.

Then, I stenciled some hearts in purple and red Silks (shimmery acrylics).  They  "hang" from some recycled scrapbooking sticker doodads. 

Next, I added some funky flowers to the lower left, using reclaimed scrapbooking doodads and some checkerboard paper for the stems.  She also got a groovy necklace (more reclaimed scrapbooking supplies).  

Lastly, I added a funky border to the top of the piece, along with some collage elements on the left (blue and white squares).  The quote was the very last thing to be added.

This was a very fun project to do with Ginny, even though it took me a few months to actually complete it.  I'm glad she was so patient with me.  If you'd like to see more of Ginny's wonderful work, you can find her blog here.

Playing With Paint - Ginny Markley

I hope you enjoyed seeing the process this collaborative piece went through from start to finish.

Cheers, my friends!
Joanna

LIMITED EDITION ART PRINTS now in stock!

"Honor"  (Namaste - I honor the light in you)

Etsy Listing - "Honor"

Hello friends;

I thought I'd share with you some of my recent listings in my Etsy store of a new line of limited edition art magnets I have had made.

These are all reproductions of my original mixed media work.  Each magnet is about 4" X 5.5" and has a semi-glossy professional finish to it.

They make great gift ideas (easily mail one in a standard No. 10 envelope).  You can jazz up your kitchen appliances or those boring office filing cabinets too!

More designs to come so stay tuned.

Thanks for looking!

"Enjoy The Journey"

Etsy Listing = "Enjoy The Journey" 

"Sing Your Song"

Etsy Listing - "Sing Your Song"

GELLI PRINT PACKING TAPE ART MAGNETS - HOW TO

Art Magnets Made With Gelli Tape Transfer Technique

Hi friends;

Here's a long overdue post for you on how I make those art magnets, using my gelli prints on packing tape.

If you haven't see the Gelli Arts video on how to make cool, arty packing tape with gelli prints, then go here first to see what I am talking about:

Gelli Arts Packing Tape Video

So, here are some photos of two of my Gelli plates with acrylic and dimensional paints.
 

12 X 14 Gelli Plate With Acrylic & Dimensional Paints

6 X 6 Gelli Plate With Acrylic Paints

And here is the tape I made from those two plates:

Gelli Tape - No Glitter Or Pearl Ex Powder Used Yet

Gelli Tape With Teal And Purple Glitter Added To Fill In The Sticky Areas

The tape was just about the perfect width for me to make backgrounds for my art magnets I create so often.  I use those sticky-backed business card-sized magnets you can buy at the office supply store.  They are 2" X 3.5" and are great for making small-scale art magnets.

Sticky-backed business card magnet blanks

All I had to do was peel off the white paper from the magnet, put the gelli tape on the magnet (remember, it's VERY sticky) and then trim the edges.

So now I have the backgrounds of the art magnets ready, what am I going to put on top of the Gelli tape?

I started by adding some of my doodly flower collage elements.  And then I added even more doodling on them with my Sakura Moonlight Gelly Roll pens (this step not shown).

Next, from my ever-increasing stash of stuff, I pulled some cute vintage-style graphics that measure about 1" X 2" and which I had already put under those sticky-backed resin pieces you can buy for such purposes.  They are great to use for making pendants and domino art.  I believe these images came from Lisa's Altered Art.

Resin Blanks (left) and Vintage Images Under Resin (right)

I used some E-6000 (similar to GOOP) to adhere the vintage images that were now under resin to the magnet backgrounds.  Clothes pins held them in place until they dried.

And here are the finished pieces.  The scans really don't do them justice as they are very bright and shiny because of the packing tape and the resin.

If you go back to the top of this post, you'll see a couple of examples of another style of magnet I made using some sweet vintage images of ladies and their dogs, and with this same technique.

I hope you've enjoyed this little tutorial and I'd love to see what you create with your gelli packing tape.

Until next time ...

Joanna